Abandonment
by Ash-Varnei
Summary: When Tony first woke up in Afghanistan after the bomb, it was to the terrorists making a ransom video: or so he thought. He wonders why nothing ever came of that video.


There was the bomb.

The first thing Tony remembered in Afghanistan after that was the pain.

The second was a bag being pulled off of his head. He was tied to a chair, and the light near blinded him to start with. He blinked through it.

Men with guns. Guns pointed at him. An unfamiliar feeling came over him: terror. What was this? An execution? Recoiling away from the men with guns to his left, he looked ahead of him and caught sight of the camera.

That was when the sounds of the guy next to him, reading something from a sheet of paper in a language he didn't recognise, filtered through.

Camera.

Tony felt fear curl up inside of him. He was a hostage. These guys, with their guns trained on him had captured him.

They wanted money. Or weapons – they had his, why did they have his – whichever way was bad. Money was better. Money didn't matter. Weapons would hurt people. His weapons. What was going on?

So if he was a hostage, and they were filming him – they must be sending this, this blackmail, to Stark Industries. Probably Obie. Hopefully Obie. Maybe he'd be out of here soon.

He didn't know whether it was better to want Obie to give them whatever weapons they were demanding – he wanted to get out of here. He was desperately scared. And his chest felt like there were a million red hot knives poking into him, cutting and twisting. His eyes tracked downwards. Someone had bandaged his chest.

But it wouldn't be a good thing if Obie gave them weapons. How many people would they kill? Maybe they'd keep him here. Keep demanding weapons.

Tony felt like he was going to be sick. He wasn't sure if that was from pain or from fear.

There was a sharp pain in the back of his head as a rifle butt made was slammed into it. Tony only had one thought as his world turned black again.

_Please, get me out of here_.

()

Tony only remembered the video about one month in. By then his world, his outlook, his future had changed so much he barely knew who he was or what he wanted any more.

It hurt, to think that Obie hadn't paid whatever ransom they'd asked for. Tony figured he was lucky they wanted weapons anyway.

He tried to reassure himself with the knowledge that he didn't want them getting his weapons any way. It didn't help. He tried to tell himself that they were looking for him and just hadn't found him..

He still felt abandoned.

And that fucking hurt.

()

He found out they had been looking for him when he escaped. Rhodey hadn't stopped.

He knew he was his best friend for a reason.

Nobody mentioned the video.

Had they really not cared? Taken the opportunity to get rid of the eccentric, useless CEO? Cared more about the company than him?

Tony knew that was unreasonable: he didn't want the terrorists getting their hands on his weapons again, but it was incredibly painful.

Especially when no one even said sorry.

()

It was nearly a week after Obie's death and the birth of 'Iron Man' when Tony thought of the video again.

He knew now why Obie hadn't paid his ransom. He'd been selling the weapons to them anyway.

Tony tried to convince himself he didn't care. Didn't care that he'd been abandoned to his death in a cave in Afghanistan.

It didn't work. He eventually gave in and talked to Pepper.

"Who knew about the ransom?" Pepper gaped at him, before frowning confusedly. Tony frowned too.

"What ransom?" she replied.

"The video. The... terrorists sent a video, right? I remember it." He tried to play it cool. It wasn't working.

Pepper understood immediately. But she shook her head. "Oh, Tony. That wasn't a ransom video. It was... here..." She turned to a computer screen, went through Obadiah's files, pulled up the translated video.

Tony watched her, dazed and bewildered.

Then he turned his attention to the screen.

Shit, he looked terrible. That was to be expected though. But the words cut through him.

"_You did not tell us that the target you paid us to kill was the great Tony Stark. As you can see, Obadiah Stane, your deception and lies will cost you dearly. The price to kill Tony Stark has just gone up."_

Obie had set the whole thing up. Tony should have died, should have been killed, executed without hesitation. There'd never been a chance for him other than escape.

It was another dark and bitter feeling to add to the pile in his head labelled Obie.

But, somehow, he felt better.

It wasn't that nobody had cared.

It was that nobody had known.

They hadn't abandoned him.


End file.
